This book is like a breath of fresh air emerging out of the toxic
atmosphere of Washington, DC. Jim Wallis, an Evangelical Christian with a
passion for social justice, peace, and Little League baseball, helped found
Sojourners, a community of Christians who intentionally moved to a low-income
area of DC to be in solidarity with the poor. Over the years his work has gained national
and international stature. A “best-selling author, public theologian, national preacher,
social activist, and international commentator,” Wallis publishes Sojourners magazine (to which I
subscribe) and has published ten books on religion and politics from a
progressive Evangelical perspective.

Wallis is also a friend of Friends, who sometimes works with FCNL,
and has a lot in common with liberal as well as Evangelical Quakers.

A voice of sanity and good will, Wallis challenges our leaders to
put aside their petty differences and partisan bickering and work for the
Common Good, what the founders of our country called “the general welfare.” He
is also a great storyteller who knows how to inspire as well as challenge us.

The title of his latest book, On
God’s Side, is taken from a quote by Lincoln, who said: “My
concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s
side.” To be on “God’s side,” in Wallis’ view, is to be on the side of the
poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed. He believes that change doesn’t
happen in the center of power, but on the margins, in movements that change
hearts and minds and thereby transform society. Wallis was a big supporter of
the Civil Rights movement as well as Occupy Wall Street.

Wallis uses the story of the “Good Samaritan” to expand our
understanding of what it means to “love our neighbor,” which he considers the
most important commandment. He told a group of business leaders to look at
their cell phones from the viewpoint not of the “supply chain,” but of the
“values chain.”Cell phones use“dirty minerals” from places inthe Congo and other areas
dominated by militia that use profits from these minerals to buy weapons and
kill thousands of people. “Imagine Jesus holding up our cell phones,” Wallis
told the business leaders. “Your neighbor, he might say, is every man, woman
and child who touched the supply chain used to make your phone, or the clothes
you wear, the computers you type on, the food you eat, and the cars you drive.
Your global neighbors in those supply lines are all God’s children” (p. 104).

This is of course what motivated John Woolman when he refused to
wear clothing or other products made from slave labor. Wallis puts many of our
Quaker practices into a biblical perspective that make sense to Evangelical and
other Bible-believing Christians.

For liberal Friends who want to love and work with our Evangelical
Quaker neighbors, this book is enormously helpful since it provides a biblical
and theological basis for what we believe and do.

Committed to dialogue and civility, Wallis seeks to build bridges
between conservatives and liberals by showing how both perspectives are
necessary for the Common Good. Conservatives emphasize “personal
responsibility” while liberals emphasize “social responsibility.” According to
Wallis, both are needed if we want to help eliminate poverty and foster justice
(which should be the goal of any society, but especially one that professes to
be Christian).

Wallis’commitment to the Common Good also appeals to those who
don’t identify with being Christian or any other faith (the so-called "nones" as in “none of
the above”). “When we Christians do what we say,” says Wallis, “People who
don’t believe are attracted.”

Wallis is committed to interfaith dialogue and cooperation as a
way of “loving your neighbor.” He tells the story of a little church in
Memphis, Tennessee, the “buckle of the Bible belt.” During the ruckus over the
so-called “Ground Zero Mosque”in Manhattan, this little church learned that an
Islamic center was being built next door so they put a sign saying “Heartsong
Church Welcomes Memphis Islamic Center to the Neighborhood.” The Muslims were
amazed, and deeply moved, and soon a friendship developed between these two
neighboring congregations. During Ramadan the Christians let the Muslims use
their sanctuary for prayers since Islamic Center wasn’t finished. This story
got world-wide coverage. One night Muslims from Kashmir called the pastor of the
Heartsong church to let him know: “God is speaking to us through this man” and
“We love you.” The Muslims of Kashmir said there was a little Christian church
in their area and they cleaned it, inside and out, and vowed to take care of it
for the rest of their lives. Wallis asked: what is more likely to bring peace
to the world, drones or what this Memphis church did?

For me, one surprising thing about this book is that Wallis
decided to take three months off his busy activist life to live in a
Camaldolese monastery near Big Sur in Northern California. As a Quaker, I find
it fascinating that Wallis is balancing his activist life with contemplation
and prayer.

This is a book that should be required reading for all our elected
officials as well as for any Friend who wants to understand how to apply Jesus’
teachings to both the personal and political aspects of life. In the epilogue
of his book, Wallis offers “ten personal decisions that will foster the common
good.” I have found it helpful to reflect on these “advices,” re-framing them
as queries. As Wallis says, “finding the integral relationship between our own
personal good and the common good is our best hope for our future.” To which I
say, “This Friend speaks my mind.”

Saturday, April 27, 2013

In 1997 I went to see the movie "Oscar Wilde" (starring the incomparable Stephen Fry) with my friend Rev Bill Miller anda group of
clergy and lay people from several more or less liberal churches—Methodists,
Church of Christ, and Quaker--who met every month or so to go to a movie and to
discuss it from a more or less theological standpoint. After returning from the movie, and after an intense and interesting discussion with these open-minded Christians, I wrote this review/reflection about the little known Christian side of Wilde's life.

Wilde is best known for his clever comedies, his macabre and beauitfully written novel "Portrait of Dorian Gray," and his unforgettably witty oneliners, such as "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between," "Life is too important to be taken seriously," "Women are meant to be loved, not understood," "Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing."
The movie does
an excellent job of depicting Wilde’s quriky human complexities, but barely touches onthe religious dimension of Wilde’s work and
life. The only religious reference that Wilde makes in the movie was his clever
line: “I mean to die a Catholic, but I don’t intend to live like one.” From
this remark, audiences would be hard put to realize that, while in jail, Wilde
composed one of the most moving and original religious confessions of this century,
“De Profundis.” The film describes this workmerely as a “farewell letter to [his lover] Lord Douglas.”

Wilde’s story
moved me more than I expected in part because Wilde played an important role in
my spiritual development that I had almost forgotten. In college, I wrote
poetry, fancied myself an aesthete, and was attracted to the works of French
decadent poets like Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, and also to the “Fin de
Siecle” artists and writers like Aubrey Beardsly and Wilde. Like Wilde and the
decadents (as well as like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles), I saw the world
of drugs as a stimulus for artistic expression. I plunged into the depths with
the enthusiasm of a convert and paid a heavy price. But at the time it seemed
worth risking all to create a poem that would dazzle with its originality and
beauty.

In my junior
yearI became a studentof Anne Sexton, another poet whose religious
dimension is sometimes overlooked. During that period (in which I still
considered myself an agnostic and studiously avoided church),I read “De Profundis” and was powerfully
moved by what seemed to me Wilde’s utterly original depiction of Jesus as an
artist, and the artist as Christ-like. After watching the movie,I re-read these words and imagined Wilde in
his prison cell penning them, and was moved to tears.

The movie depicts
Wilde writing fairy tales in prison, which is so far from reality as to be
almost ludicrous. In fact, while in prison, Wilde turned to the Gospels and
read them in the original Greek:

Of late I have been studying with
diligence the four prose poems about Christ.At Christmas I managed to get hold of a Greek
Testament, and every morning,
after I had cleaned my cell and polished my tins, I read a little
of the Gospels, a dozen verses taken by chance anywhere.It is a delightful way of opening the day.Every one, even in a turbulent,
ill-disciplined life, should do the same.Endless repetition, in and out of season, has
spoiled for us the freshness, the naivete,
the simple romantic charm of the Gospels.We hear them read far too often and far too
badly, and all repetition is
anti-spiritual.When one returns to the
Greek; it is like going into a garden of
lilies out of some, narrow and dark house.

As this passage
suggests, Wilde’s approach to the Gospels was aesthetic rather than theological—which
is to say, it was “felt” rather than reasoned out (or rationalized). Another
way of saying this is that Wilde read the Gospels not as a rule book or as a
historical document, but as a work of art in the profoundest sense. Wilde’s
ambition was to write a work depicting Christ as the ultimate artist, and in a
sense that is what he achieved in “De Profundis.” I heartily recommend that
serious Christians interested in art should read the whole work since it is one
of the most profound and original spiritual confessions of this century.

It is impossible
to do justice to this work in a brief essay. So much depends on the style and
tone that it is tempting simply to quote passages like the following:

If ever I write again, in the
sense of producing artistic work, there are just two subjects on
which and through which I desire to express myself:one is 'Christ as the precursor of the
romantic movement in life':the other is 'The artistic life considered in
its relation to conduct.'The first is, of course, intensely fascinating, for I see in Christ
not merely the essentials of the supreme romantic type, but all
the accidents, the wilfulnesses even, of the romantic temperament
also.He was the first person who ever said to people that they
should live 'flower-like lives.'He fixed the phrase.He took children as the type of what people should try to become.He held them up as examples to their elders, which I myself have always
thought the chief use of children, if what is perfect should have a
use.Dante describes the soul of a man as coming from the hand of
God 'weeping and laughing like a little child,' and Christ also
saw that the soul of each one should be A GUISA DI FANCIULLA CHE
PIANGENDO E RIDENDO PARGOLEGGIA.
He felt that life was changeful,
fluid, active, and that to allow it to be stereotyped into any form
was death. He saw that people should not be too serious over
material, common interests:that to be unpractical was to be a great
thing:that one should not bother too much over affairs.The birds didn't, why should man?He is charming when he says, 'Take no
thought for the morrow; is not the soul more than meat? is not the
body more than raiment?'A Greek might have used the latter
phrase.It is full of Greek
feeling.But only Christ could have said
both, and so summed up life perfectly for us.His morality is all sympathy,
just what morality should be.If the only thing that he ever said had
been, 'Her sins are forgiven her because she loved much,' it would
have been worth while dying to have said it.His justice is all poetical justice, exactly
what justice should be.The beggar goes to heaven because he has been
unhappy.I cannot conceive a better reason for his
being sent there.The people who work for an hour in the
vineyard in the cool of the evening receive just as
much reward as those who have toiled there all day long in the hot
sun.Why shouldn't they?Probably no one deserved anything.Or perhaps they were a different kind of people.
Christ had no patience with the dull lifeless
mechanical systems that treat people as if
they were things, and so treat everybody alike:for him there were no laws:there were exceptions merely, as if anybody,
or anything, for that matter, was like aught else in the world!
That which is the very keynote of
romantic art was to him the proper basis of natural
life.He saw no other basis.And when they brought him one, taken in
the very act of sin and showed him her sentence written in the law,
and asked him what was to be done, he wrote with his finger on the
ground as though he did not hear them, and finally, when they
pressed him again, looked up and said, Let him of you who has never
sinned be the first to throw the stone at her.'It was worth while living to have said that.
Like all poetical natures he
loved ignorant people.He knew that in the soul of one who is
ignorant there is always room for a great idea.But he could not stand stupid people,
especially those who are made stupid by
education:people who are full of
opinions not one of which they even
understand, a peculiarly modern type, summed up by Christ when he describes it
as the type of one who has the key of knowledge, cannot use it
himself, and does not allow other people to use it, though it may
be made to open the gate of God's Kingdom.

Wilde would have understood the
“culture war” taking place between the fundamentalists and conservatives in
America today. In Wilde’s view, Jesus’ “chief war was against the
Philistines.That is the war every child
of light has to wage.Philistinism was
the note of the age and community in which he lived.In their heavyinaccessibility to ideas, their dull respectability,
their tedious orthodoxy, their worship of vulgar success, their entire
preoccupation with the gross materialistic side of life, and theirridiculous estimate of themselves and their
importance, the Jews ofJerusalem in
Christ's day were the exact counterpart of the BritishPhilistine of our own."

Sound familiar? In Wilde’s view,
what “saves” people are not their professions of faith or their their
do-goodism, but “beautiful moments” in which they realize their true nature as
children of God. Wilde writes: “The coldphilanthropies, the ostentatious public charities, the tedious
formalisms so dear to the middle-class mind, [Christ] exposed with utter and
relentless scorn….Those whom he saved from their sins are saved simply for
beautiful moments in their lives.Mary
Magdalen, when she sees Christ, breaks the rich vase of alabaster that one of
her seven lovers had given her, and spills the odorous spices over his tired
dusty feet, and for that one moment's sake sits for ever with Ruth and
Beatricein the tresses of the
snow-white rose of Paradise.All that
Christsays to us by the way of a little
warning is that every momentshould be
beautiful, that the soul should always be ready for thecoming of the bridegroom, always waiting for
the voice of the lover, Philistinism being simply that side of man's nature
that isnot illumined by the
imagination.He sees all the lovelyinfluences of life as modes of light:the imagination itself isthe world of light.The world is made by it, and yet the worldcannot understand it:that is because the imagination is simply
amanifestation of love, and it is love
and the capacity for it thatdistinguishes
one human being from another.”

Those who have been raised on the
social Gospel may find such religious aestheticism suspect, but Wilde had a
genuine love for ordinary people, and a social conscience. The Ballad of
Reading Goal is a powerful statement against capital punishment.

But Wilde was not interested in
social reform for its own sake. He was at heart an individualist. He saw Jesus
not a reformer trying to change the way we live our lives, but as a visionary
whose presence changes us at the depths of our being.

“Indeed, that is the charm about Christ, when all is
said:he is just like a work of
art.He does not really teach one
anything, but by being brought into his presence one becomes something.”

Wilde questions
the motives, and the goals, of reformers who would turn criminals into
capitalists:

“[Christ’s] primary desire was not
to reform people, any more than his primary desire was to a relieve
suffering.To turn an interesting thief
into a tedious honest man was not his aim.He would have thought little of the Prisoners' Aid Societyand other modern movements of the kind.The conversion of apublican into a Pharisee would not have
seemed to him a great achievement.But
in a manner not yet understood of the world he regarded sin and suffering as
being in themselves beautiful holythings and modes of perfection.”

Wilde goes on to say, “It seems a
very dangerous idea.It is—all great
ideas aredangerous.That it was Christ's creed admits of no
doubt.That it is the true creed I don't
doubt myself.”
“There is something so unique about Christ.Of course just as thereare false dawns before the dawn itself, and
winter days so full ofsudden sunlight
that they will cheat the wise crocus into squandering its gold before its time, and make some foolish
birdcall to its mate to build on barren
boughs, so there wereChristians before
Christ.For that we should be
grateful.The unfortunate thing is that there have been none since.I make oneexception, St. Francis of Assisi.But then God had given him athis
birth the soul of a poet, as he himself when quite young had in mystical marriage taken poverty as his bride:and with the soul ofa poet and the body of a beggar he found the
way to perfection notdifficult.He understood Christ, and so he became like
him.We do not require the Liber Conformitatum to teach us that the
life ofSt. Francis was the true
IMITATIO CHRISTI, a poem compared to whichthe book of that name is merely prose.”

The movie ends with
another clever line from Wilde: “Like St. Francis, my last days have been
wedded to poverty, but unlike St. Francis, this marriage has not been a
success.” Audiences watching “Wilde” cannot fully appreciate the irony of Wilde
unless they realize that Wilde in his latter days did in fact aspire to make
his life an Imitatio Christi. Perhaps the movie-makers had a glimmering of
this. As Wilde was led out of the court room, and faced the jeering crowds, some
of whom spat upon him, I could not help thinking of Jesus being led to the
Place of Skulls.

Today, thank God,
gays do not face the death penalty or imprisonment for trying to realize their
true nature. Wilde, like many homosexuals today, did not feel at home in the
conventional church, but he did feel a deep attraction for Christ. We may find
fault with his theology, but we cannot question his love of Christ and his
yearning for the Divine. The movie “Wilde” does a fine job of depicting Wilde’s
human side, but only when we read “De Profundis” and “Reading Goal” do we realize
that Wilde was also a spiritual seeker whose life was tragically cut short.

PS I just found Wilde's quote on war and find it very insightful, only it needs to be modernized. "As long as war it regarded as evil, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as stupid and uncool, it will cease to be popular."

Thursday, April 25, 2013

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those who are perishing." (Prov 31:8)

Jill recently attended a meeting in which local business leaders
were proud of the fact that they had successfully closed down a recycling
center on the corner of Washington and Lake Ave, a low-income area where Food for
Less is located. According to theese business leaders, this center was
attracting unsightly people who used their money to buy single cans of beer.
The presence of such people is seen as “bad for business.”

Our friend Mark is a formerly homeless man who lives in our
backhouse and occasionally brings cans to be recycled. He was outraged.

“Most of those who recycle are poor families,” he claimed. “Most people who
recycle aren’t causing anyone any trouble. They’re just poor.”

We had a discussion about how to document who used the recyclying
cener, and for what purpose. In Making Housing Happen (p. 222-223), Jill tells the
story of Charles Suhayda, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, who was trained as a scientist and who trained
homeless people to conduct a scientifically valid survey to determine the needs of the homeless in
his area. Armed with data, the homeless and their advocates formed the Hollywood Community Action Network (HCAN) and successfully
lobbied the City Council to provide needed services.

Generally speaking, business leaders and middle class people don’t
like to see anyone poor or homeless in their area. This phenomenon is called NIMBYism ("Not in my backyard").

In various cities (such as La Jolla, San Francisco, Monrovia)
there has been push-back by local businesses when recycling centers open up
that are used by the poor and the homeless. But there is usually no objection
when they are run by churches for middle class folks, as this article explains.

This puts the poor into an impossible bind. The middle class
objects when the poor panhandle, but when the poor try to earn an honest living
by recycling, it’s still objectionable. Why?

When the poor recycle, they are actually performing a public
service. Some gather cans from the street, which is certainly commendable.
Others rummage through the trash. In either case, they are saving taxpayers
money since the county and city recycling centers pay people to sort out what’s
recyclable. The poor do it without charging the taxpayer a dime.

True, some of the homeless recyclers are alcoholics who use their money to buy
booze. But if they weren’t earning money by recycling, they will have to
panhandle or steal to feed their addiction. Isn’t recycling a preferable
option?

This is an issue that churches should take seriously for biblical
as well as moral reasons.

The Old Testament makes it clear that God has ordained “gleaning”
as an obligation for the rich to give the poor (and foreigners) a chance to
gather their own food instead of begging:

“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap
your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your
harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD
your God.”

In today’s urbanized setting, recycling can be seen a form of
gleaning. It provides the poor a chance to earn needed income from the scraps
from the tables of the rich and middle class. To deny the poor that right is to
disobey one of God’s commands. It also denies the poor a chance to perform
useful work for the pubblic good.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Interfaith
Just Peacemaking: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives on the New Paradigm
of Peace and War," edited by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite. New
York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012.

The
paradigm of “just peacemaking” is one of the most important recent developments
in interfaith and ecumenical social activism, though it is not as widely known
as it should be. This eminently practical as well as deeply theological
approach is helping people of different faith perspectives to find common
ground and work together for peace. As someone who has been involved with
interfaith peacemaking for over a decade, I find this approach extremely
exciting and hopeful.

The
idea of “just peacemaking” originated with Glen Stassen, a professor of Christian
ethics at Fuller Seminary and an Evangelical Christian who was a student of Reinhold
Niebuhr (Obama’s favorite theologian). Niebuhr, one of America’s most
influential theologians in the 1950s, gave up on pacifism during WWII and
became a “Christian realist,” justifying war in situations where Christians
must confront what he saw as inherently evil systems like Nazism and Communism.

Stassen has been influenced by both Niebuhr and by John Yoder, the Mennonite pacifist theologian. Stassen describes himself both as a "pacifist" and "realist" who is ardently anti-war—he earned a degree in nuclear
physics as well as Christian ethics and devoted himself to nuclear weapons
reduction and elimination from the 1980s on. He has also worked with the AFSC
as well as with Evangelicals for Social Action to oppose war. On the door of
his office at Fuller is the FNCL sign: “War is not the answer.”

Stassen
argues that pacifists and just war theorists/Christian realists will never
agree because they come from very different theological perspectives What all Christians
can agree on, says Stassen, is that God calls us to do our utmost to avoid war
and promote peace. After considerable study, Stassen has come up with ten
"best peacemaking practices" that have been proven to work:

1.Support nonviolent direct action

2.Take independent initiatives to reduce threats

3.Use cooperative conflict resolution

4.Acknowledge responsibility for conflict and injustice and seek
repentance and forgiveness

5.Advance democracy, human rights and interdependence

6.Foster just and sustainable economic development

7.Work with emerging cooperative forces in the international
system

8.Strengthen
the UN and international efforts for cooperation and human rights

9.Reduce
offensive weapons and the weapons trad

10.Encourage
grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary associations

Stassen shows these
techniques not only work in the real world, they are also consistent with biblical
teachings. He published his ground-breaking book Just Peacemaking:
Transforming Initiatives for Justice and Peace(1992) when the Cold War ended in the early
1990s. At that time he was deeply impressed with non-violent resistance efforts
he had encountered in Eastern Europe. In the aftermath of 9/11, when just war
theorists and Christian realists were justifying the “war against terror,” and
the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, Stassen questioned this response and put
together an anthology by Christians of various denominations called Just Peacemaking:
The New Paradigm for the Ethics of Peace and War (2008).

As a
follow up to this book, Susan Thistlethwaite, a United Methodist pastor as well
professor and former president of Chicago Theological Seminary, published Interfaith Just Peacemaking: Jewish,
Christian and Muslim Perspectives on the New Paradigm of Peace and War. This
fascinating book contains chapters by leading Jewish, Muslim and Christian scholars
that explore the practical application as well as theological basis for Just
Peacemaking from Abrahamic faith perspectives. These scholars don't all agree
on every point--God forbid!--but they are in general agreement that the practices
of Just Peacemaking are consistent with the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran.

This is
good news indeed. If Muslims, Jews and Christians of all denominations can work
together for peace, certainly Evangelical and liberal Quakers can do likewise!

The
only disappointment I have with this book is the lack of a Quaker perspective.
All of the theologians included are “people of the book” who rely mainly upon
scriptural authority to justify their views. I would have loved to have seen at
least one theologian discuss the spiritual and experiential basis for just peacemaking.
It is our Quaker conviction that our peacemaking efforts are most effective
when they spring from an experience of inner peace, when we listen to our
Inward Guide and follow the leadings of the Spirit. This inward experience
leads to outward practices such as consensus decision making as well as to our
social testimonies (simplicity, equality, community), a way of life that fosters
peace and justice. Despite the omission of a Quaker perspective, I heartily recommend
this book to Friends and to others who have serious commitment to ending war
and promoting a just peace. I also look forward to a follow-up book that
includes those of non-Abrahamic faiths, such as a Buddhists, Bahais, Hindus
and others.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The
tragedy at the Boston Marathon shows once again the heart-breaking futility of
violence. I grieve for and with the families of those who were killed and wounded. I pray they will find the comfort and support they need during this difficult time.

There is no indication yet of who perpetrated this damnable deed, or
why, but ultimately what matters is: what are we going to do to prevent such
tragedies from recurring?

Typically, our government reacts to violence by instigating more violence, which simply
perpetuates the cycle. Since 9/11, we have been conducting a "war on
terrorism," using terroristic means; and the result has been more and more
acts of violence in the world. As our government goes about killing innocent people using drones and other means, it is inevitable that someone somwhere will seek revenge here in our homeland.

There
is another and better way of responding to violence: the way of Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Martin Luther
King, and Badshah Khan, the Pashtun leader who became a champion of nonviolent resistance in Afghanistan. Instead of reacting to violence with violence, we seek to address the root causes of violence, and we refrain from validating violence by using violent means.

This
week Orange Grove Meeting approved a minute on drones that could help to reduce one root cause of violence: our use of drones. I am pleased that Friends are showing concern for this issue. The Jan-Feb issue of The Western Friend has an interview with Leah Bolger, Veterans for Peace national board member, who talks about drones. Friends Journal also published an excellent piece about drones by Joan Nicholson, who went on a delegation to Pakinstan with Medea Benjamin and others from Code Pink (it is included below). FNCL signed on to a letter by religious leaders calling for more transparency in the use of drones, tranferring their use from the CIA to the military, where there is more accountability. The AFSC is also working a piece of "model legislation" regarding drones that will be coming out soon.
Drones have become extremely popular among those who profit from war. Congress has a "drone caucus," consisting of elected officials who support drones as the new weapon of choice. This is not surprising since drones have become a big business here in So Cal, with drone factories in Monrovia and San Diego.
It therefore seems fitting for So Cal Friends to say "no" to drones and everything they stand for. As John Woolman once said, when we experience God's love and commit ourselves to the Light, we no longer can support the business of war. "To turn all the treasures we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the business of our lives..."

Minute of Concern regarding Drone
Warfare

approved by Orange Grove Meeting, April 14, 2013

As Friends (Quakers) who believe there is "that of God"
in everyone and therefore every life is sacred, we are deeply concerned about
the proliferation of lethal unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones.
The United States is leading the way in this new form of warfare where pilots
in US bases kill people, by remote control, thousands of miles away. Drones
have become the preferred weapons to conduct war due to the lack of direct risk
to the lives of U.S. soldiers, but these drone strikes have led to the death of
hundreds of innocent civilians in countries where we are not at war, including
Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

We urge our government to put an end to this secretive,
remote-controlled killing and instead promote foreign policies that are
consistent with the values of a democratic and humane society. We call on the
United Nations to regulate the international use of lethal drones in a fashion
that promotes a just and peaceful world community, based on the rule of law,
with full dignity and freedom for every human being.

Recommended actions

We recommend that the Clerk of our Monthly Meeting send this
minute to our elected officials and encourage Friends to do likewise. A copy of
this minute will be sent to Quarterly and Yearly Meeting for its consideration.

Friends are also encouraged to read Medea Benjamin book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control and
to engage in study on how to address this concern.

******

Drone Warfare (From Friends
Journal)

I was part of a delegation to Pakistan in October 2012 to
address the issue of United States drone warfare. Several thousand Pakistanis,
including small children, have been killed by U.S. drones and many others have
been critically injured. During just one day of our visit, 18 people were killed
by drones.We heard from individuals whose family members had been killed.
One of them, a bereaved Pakistani journalist summed up his view of the situation
by saying, “The blood shed [sic] of Muslim people has no value.” He told
us of the drone strike that destroyed his house, killing his 18-year-old son,
his younger brother, and a stonemason who was in the village to work on the
mosque. His son, a recent high school graduate, was working at his school
because he wanted to encourage the community to value education. His brother had
a master’s in English literature and had taught for eight years, trying to
convey to students that education was more powerful than weapons. He left a
grief-stricken wife and a two-year-old son.We heard about the terror caused by the constant presence of
drones in some areas. Pakistanis are afraid to attend gatherings like weddings,
funerals, or business meetings. They know they will probably all be killed if
their houses are targeted, and believe that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
views all young and middle-aged men as potential targets. (A new
counter-terrorism manual for targeted killing operations explicitly exempts the
CIA from having to follow the rules in its campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan
for at least a year.)When the Deputy Chief of U.S. Mission, Richard Hoagland, spoke
with us, he maintained that very few civilians had been killed by drones. When
he was asked about the second-wave and even multiple strikes that have been
killing and wounding many rescuers, he stated that in recent years, there have
never been deliberate strikes against rescuers. We urged him to investigate and
provide a public report.The day after a candlelight vigil with young people, we traveled
toward the targeted areas of Waziristan with Imran Khan’s large peace caravan.
We passed many people who expressed support by waving and giving the peace sign.
At a rally, we stood on the stage with our banner “Stop Killer Drones.” Code
Pink’s Medea Benjamin spoke; the crowd called out repeatedly, “Welcome to you!
We want peace!”Prior to the trip, the U.S. State Department had issued a
warning that U.S. citizens would be in danger if they traveled to Pakistan. Our
delegation was given a very warm welcome. We were showered with rose petals and
given bouquets at the airport. Throughout the trip, we were warmly received and
shown generous hospitality in spite of the country’s poverty. People understood
that we believe their lives are sacred and that we are committed to working for
peace and an end to the evil of drone warfare. It may be a long and difficult
struggle, as the U.S. government seems intent on continuing the use of drone
warfare in order to help control its access to natural
resources.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

When
my wife Jill came back from a meeting of the Pasadena Housing
Department and told me how sequestration would affect low-income
folk, my heart sank.

Sequestration--the
budget slashing measure that took place because Congress was
unwilling to deal intelligently with our fiscal crisis--is having a
serious impact on homelessness here in Pasadena and throughout the
USA.

Myrtle
Dunson, Housing Manager for the city of Pasadena, reported that
sequestration requires that the number of Section 8 housing vouchers
in the city be cut by 50-75
as
of April 1. These vouchers are what enable 1,406 low-income people to
afford housing here in Pasadena.

This
is “only” a 5% cut, but some of those whose Section 8 assistance
has been cut will probably end up homeless. Nan Roman, President of
the National Alliance to End Homelessness, puts these cuts into a
national perspective:

"It
is estimated that over 125,000 families and individuals - more than
half of whom are elderly and disabled - may lose their housing
through the cuts to the housing assistance programs. Some 100,000
people will be affected by the cuts to homeless assistance. While
some programs that aid poor people are exempt from sequestration,
these efforts to meet the basic needs of the poorest people are not."

According
to the most recent homeless count, Pasadena has 772 homeless persons,
a 15% decrease thanks in part to Housing Works, an organization that
houses the chronically and at-risk homeless, thereby saving the city
money (since this population tends to need services such as
hospitalization, etc.). This highly successful program will suffer
cuts up to 5.9% due to sequestration.

As of January, 2013,
560 Pasadenans are homeless and unsheltered, including 39 homeless
veterans and 33 families with a total of 59 children.

The
homeless population is growing older and more prone to illness, as
Rebecca Zukins pointed out in a recent article entitled "Aging
into homelessness: Experts say more seniors will be on the streets if
more isn't done to increase housing opportunities,” Pasadena
Weekly
4/4/13).

Non-profits
and churches are working tirelessly to help those in need. Friends In
Deed (formerly known as ECPAC), Union Station, and other groups work
together to provide services for Pasadena's homeless population.

Family
Promise, a national organization with a new branch focusing on the
San Gabriel Valley, involves congregations in providing services that
help homeless families find jobs and housing. Three Pasadena
churches--Friendship Baptist, Hollinston Community Church, and
Onevoice Free Methodist Church--are part of this highly effective
program.

According
to the US Council of Mayors, "lack of affordable housing"
is one of the primary causes of homelessness. That's why we need to
urge Congress to increase, not cut back, Section 8 vouchers. That’s
why we need to expand inclusionary zoning, like the ordinance in
Pasadena that created aover 460 units of affordable housing, at no
expense to taxpayers (IZ requires that developers make at least 15%
of their units affordable). We also need to encourage cities to
follow AB 1866, the state law allowing home owners to build second
units (so-called “granny flats”)—a policy that has worked quite
well to create affordable housing in places like Santa Cruz and
Culver City.

Finally,
we need to make a serious commitment to create more affordable
housing by supporting the California Homes and Jobs Act of 2013 (SB
391).

Help
businesses attract and retain the talent that fuels California’s
economy.

Generate
an estimated $500 million in state investment and leverage an
additional $2.78 billion in federal, local, and private investment.

Deploy
these dollars throughout California using a successful
private/public partnership model, creating jobs and generating
revenue for local governments.

Build
safe and affordable apartments and single-family homes for
Californians in need, including families, seniors, veterans, people
with disabilities, and people experiencing homelessness.

As
Christians, Jill and I believe we have a God-mandated responsibility
to make sure that our neighbors have decent housing:"There
were no needy persons among [early Christians]. For from time to time
those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the
sales and distributed it among the needy"(Act
4:34).

Housing
for all Americans has also been national policy ever since the
Congress passed the US Housing Act in 1949, calling for “a decent
home and suitable living environment for every American family.”

Decent
housing for all Americans is the true American dream, one that we
could and should make a reality. If wealthy and privileged Americans
paid their fair share of taxes (at least as much as middle class
people do), and if the middle class chipped in a bit, we could meet
this goal and end homelessness in America. Si,
se puede!

Bio:
Anthony Manousos and his wife Jill Shook reside in Northwest Pasadena
and work to promote affordable housing as well as other community
concerns, such as reducing gun violence (both are involved in the
Pasadena Area Gun Buyback campaign). Dr. Shook, with help from her
husband, a Quaker peace activist, authored Making
Housing Happen: Faith-Based Affordable Housing Models
(2012), a book that offers workable solutions and true stories by
people of faith who have made housing happen for those in need. See
makinghousinghappen.com.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Jill wrote the following Easter letter to her supporters, which I am happy to share here with you. I am pleased and proud beyond measure to be married to someone who shares my enthusiasm for peace and justice....and is willing to work tirelessly to make peace happen!

Happy Easter! One week ago today Anthony and
I celebrated two years since we met at the Palm Sunday Peace Parade. This year I
had the joy of organizing two miniature donkeys for the parade. The kids had a
blast riding them. This week we have been bathed in meaningful Easter week
experiences: a foot washing and “last supper,” a good Friday and a sunrise
services with African American churches. Anthony was asked to pray for the cup
as we shared communion. I’m pleased he, too, is being recognized as a spiritual
leader in the [Evangelical community here in] Pasadena.

The theme of this year’s Peace Parade was
“Beating Swords into plowshares” (Isa 2:4) and we are planning to do just that.
I have become the co-chair of the Pasadena Area Gun Buyback—where those who
wish will exchange their guns for a gift card—paid for by the churches of
Pasadena. A “Peace-Source” fair will take place around the corner as the buyback
taking place, which will showcase how churches and nonprofits are involved with
intervention, prevention and alternatives to violence. This will all happen May
11—what a Mothers’ day gift! We are working with a renown sculptor who will
melt the guns into an art object to demonstrate the commitment and unity of the
congregations to end gun violence.

Since Christmas Pasadena has had four gun
deaths and many shootings—even a four-year-old was shot! We are asking
congregations to give $50 for a non-working gun, $100 for a pistol or $200 for
an assault weapon. Today three people gave me $100 checks. Just when I’m tempted
to panic, God encourages me and our amazing team. So please pray. Today I read
how one anonymous donor gave $100,000 for the Phoenix Buyback this week—yet by
asking each church to participate our idea is to see a the culture of violence
more broadly addressed. But right now in the thick of all this planning, I would
not be opposed to such a gift!

In the past months I’ve have had several speaking engagements and book
signings—each selling out! My goal this year is to focus on promoting this
revised version of Making Housing Happen, but God seems to have had some
additional unexpected plans with this the Gun Buyback as well as a benefit
concert I’m planning with another awesome team—Barry McGuire will be playing
with John York at 3:30pm on June 9th at the First Pasadena Nazarene
Church. Barry will share his journey to Jesus along with his “Tripping the
Sixties” concert, which is a blast! The funds will support Family Promise of San
Gabriel Valley—where homeless families are hosted by the congregations, gain
employment and long term housing. Mark June 9th on your calendar. If
you are in the Southern CA area, I’d love to get to see you.

God is resurrecting his people to
action, to transform our community. I thank God for you and your partnership
with me to make this happen. Love you, Jill

About Anthony Manousos

I am a Quaker peace activist, teacher and author, my most recent book being "Transformative Quakers" and "Howard and Anna Brinton: Reinventors of Quakerism in the 20th century." I serve on the board of directors for several organizations, including the Friends World Committee for Consultation and Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace. I love biking, hiking in the mountains, going to museums and art galleries, Classical music, jazz, and being with friends. For twelve years I edited a Quaker magazine called "Friends Bulletin" (now called "The Western Friend") and edited four books and wrote several pamphlets for Quakers. I have taught at numerous colleges and universities, including Carleton College, Rutgers, Pepperdine, UC San Bernardino, San Bernardino Valley College, etc. I am a certified spiritual director through a spiritual direction program called "Stilpoint." I reside in Pasadena with wife Jill Shook, who has published a book on affordable housing (makinghousinghappen.com). We have a lovely garden, citrus and fig trees, a grape arbor, cats named Miss Rosie and Dr. Pepper, and three Arucana chickens.